On the Absolutely Ridiculous Banger That Is DJ Quik and Kurupt’s “9 Times Out of 10”

May 18, 2009

Who knows what will come of the slated Quik/Kurupt collabo album, BlaQKout, which is currently scheduled to come out early next month. Quik, who worked on Tupac’s All Eyez on Me, among other records on which his production is completely underrated, has had many a record scrapped before. Too bad–“9 Times Out of 10” borrows shrewdly from the Neptunes (“Grindin”) and Polow Da Don (“Drop”–the 2009 song “9 Times” most resembles and still the best work anyone has done this year on anything). Quik finds a Rich Boy-level foil in Kurupt, whose twisty, affectless stream of syllables turns out to suit production much more aggro than what you used to hear him on in his Death Row days. This project seems doomed to fly under the radar. But June 9–the same day Futuristic Leland is supposed to come out–is really shaping up to be a wacky rap release day, in the best way possible. Call it the unofficial first day of summer.